(Video of my friend, Kate LaCroix, going into the water to swim in the first event of the Longhorn Ironman…she’s the one waving.:) )

Hello again. Things have settled some and I’m finding more time to focus and direct my energy into the positive places where I need to grow. For the past couple of years, I’ve been practicing strengthening in Crow Pose (Bakasana), Eka Pada Bakasana (One-legged Crow Pose) and Crow Pose into Handstand in my Yoga practice. Having healed into healthier places in myself, I’m finding more time/energy to invest myself more deeply in this growth. It’s amazing how when we let go of giving our energy to what is not best for us (certain foods, relationships, habits, etc.) we find we have more Energy/Prana on our side strengthening and supporting us into growing in the way that will align us into that healthier relationship with ourself and everything else.

The other night as I was surfing the web, I decided to check out Youtube to find some Yoga inspiration and guidance in my Yoga practice, specifically with Crow Pose into Handstand. I found this clip of a fellow Yogini practicing this and after a couple of attempts I was able to do it! For two years I have been practicing this and seeking the answers to how to do it, but it’s amazing how the answer doesn’t arrive until we are fully ready to receive it. I had to first grow strong into One-Legged Crow Pose (and fall on my face a few times) before I was ready to practice this. So, I’m feeling very inspired as I realize, yet again, that what I was uncertain and unsure of being possible for myself, is possible with earnest practice and patience. Everytime I grow in my Yoga practice I realize my true potentil is unlimited. I have had many experiences, recently, where I’ve been reminded of this, besides my recent Yoga breakthrough.

About a month ago, I was reading an article in the October 2009 issue of Yoga Journal magazine called The Art of Staying Young. In the article, they interviewed Patricia Walden, who is 62 and has been a student of BKS Iyengar, one of the most beloved Yoga teachers on the planet, for 33 years. I first came to know of Patricia a couple of years ago when she was featured on the cover of Yoga Journal. On the cover, at the age of probably 60, she was doing full Kapotasana. (Pigeon Pose) This is the Yoga pose where you bend your knees and touch your feet to the back of your head in Upward Facing Dog. In that article, they were asking her how she was able to grow into that pose and suggested she must surely have been able to do it all her life. She replied that she had not always been able to do that pose. That, in fact, she had struggled with pain in her lower back, and that she had to go through a lot of discomfort to be able to grow and heal into that pose/place in her Yoga practice. She recited a quote from The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali saying it was that guidance that inspired her to continue to practice. In The Yoga Sutras it says, practice with earnestness without interruption over a long period of time. So, she kept practicing and practicing and sure enough, she was able to grow into that pose.

In the most recent article I just read last month she was talking about overcoming the limiting tendencies of the mind. Here is an excerpt from the article:

“Sometimes I’ll wake up stiff and wonder what my body will feel like if i start doing backbends. Then I begin practicing, and I forget that I’m 62. Twenty minutes into my practice, I feel younger. Inevitably, the power of yoga takes over and you feel ageless!

About 10 months ago, I went to my mat with the intention of doing a series of dropbacks from Tadasana (Mountain Pose). I thought, “Gosh, I’m over 60. I don’t know if I’m up to it.” Then I remembered Iyengar’s 80th birthday. He did 108 dropbacks. His feet were planted; they didn’t move. I realized it was my mind, and not my body, saying I couldn’t do it. As we get older, we have to be careful of the tricks our minds can play on us. Sometimes your mind tells you to be careful for good reason, but sometimes it’s telling you that your body can’t do something that it can do.

I look at the films of the demos I made when I was in my 30s and 40s. I did a demo for my 50th and 60th birthdays. My poses are better, more integrated, than when I was younger. My flexibility and strength are more balanced, as are my effort and relaxation. I try never to take my body for granted. One of the things that comes with the aging process is that we feel such gratitude that yoga came into our lives and that our bodies still enjoy bending forward and backward.

I also enjoy more mental freedom now. My mind is much more expansive than it was in my 20s. I was judgmental and critical and narrow-minded. Things roll of my back now in ways they didn’t when I was younger. I experience more contentment, and I don’t have that obsessive thinking or cling to things like I used to. Asana, meditation, and pranayama are great, but the philosophy really pays off, and you start looking at things from a yogic point of view.

The Yamas and Niyamas (restraints and observances, the first and second of the eight limbs of ashtanga yoga) are really in your cells. I don’t think about whether I should tell the truth; there’s no choice. And I allow other people in my life the freedom to be exactly as they want to be. Even though we know it isn’t effective, we often try to talk people into doing what we think they should be doing. That’s a prison. It takes times to plant new samskaras (patterns.) There is such freedom in letting people do what they want to do. You and they will be happier if they’re doing what they want to do. Practicing Yoga is a way to free yourself from suffering.

When I was younger, I would think, “When X happens, I’ll be happy.” When, when, when. At a certain stage in practice, you see that you can’t base your life on contingencies. Things change at any moment. Why not be happy now? Yoga has helped me go through really challenging times with grace and ease. You can say, “OK, things are hard right now, but everything changes.” When everything is great and integrated, that will change, too. You savor good times and don’t get as thrown with the changes. You just ride the wave. It’s so much less stressful. -Patricia Walden

OK, well this is the whole article…but, it’s amazing…I had to include all of it.

I also had another experience this past weekend which widened the horizons of my spirit. I went to Austin, Texas to cheer my friend on who participated in a 1/2 Ironman. (Swim 1.2Mi, Bike 56Mi, Run 13.1Mi.) I haven’t ever watched a marathon before or attended any event like this. It was inspiring and amazing. There was a 74 year old man who completed the 1/2 triathlon! I witnessed many other inspiring individuals, including a woman who was significantly overwheight, but completed the entire event. Once again, it reminds us anything we put our mind to is possible. My friend will be competing in the full Ironman in Lake Placid next July and I hope to be there, again, to support her and cheer her on. She is such an inspiration to me, she just continues to raise the bar for herself again, and again, and again. This past weekend was humbling, enlightening and inspiring as I remembered I have everything I need within me to grow into stronger, healthier places in my Yoga practice and in myself.

This is what strengthening the core (3rd chakra) in Yoga is all about…activating our will and determination. Realizing what we can do and dissolving our limiting thoughts about what we think we can’t do. I wrote quite a bit about this in the most recent edition of the True Yoga Newsletter, which I encourage you to sign up for if you do not currently receive it.

I will be back soon. I look forward to sharing with you a wonderful story from a monk, from the Self-Realization Fellowship, about the practice of prayer. In many ways, we could say the same thing about praying as practicing poses. Pray earnestly, over a long period of time, without interruption. So often, we don’t see any immediate results in our prayers, and so we give up. Pray continuously, unceasingly and give thanks in advance.

Until then, check out Youtube for some Yoga inspiration. If there is a certain pose you are practicing and would like some guidance on, there is a good chance you can find the guidance you need, when you really look for it within yourself.